Russia

The war in Russia was to change the course of World
War Two in Europe. In June 1941, World War Two
witnessed what was then the largest land attack in history -'OperationBarbarossa'. A vast Nazi force
used Blitzkrieg to devastating effect on the
Russian Army.Hitler had long made it clear that he hated the Russians
and that war between the two countries was inevitable. The Nazi-Soviet Pact of
1939 had only delayed what Hitler was apparently planning even when the Battle
of Britain was at its height. He believed that the Russians were sub-human (the
'untermenschen' ) and that they had no
right to live where they did. That they were East European was compounded by the
fact that Russia was communist and led by JosephStalin. Hitler hated communism
and Stalin.

Hitler wanted all the land in Eastern Europe to be given to
Germans as they, Hitler believed, could farm it properly while East Europeans
could not. Also many Jews lived in Russia (also known as the USSR at this time)
and Hitler wanted them exterminated.

In August 1939, Hitler and Russia had signed a treaty of
non-aggression which was meant to last for 10 years. However, for both countries
the treaty was merely to buy time to get their armies into shape before one
attacked the other. Hitler wished to stabilise his western frontier before
turning east. Stalin desperately needed to reform his
army after the 1930's putches when his senior officers had been effectively
wiped out either by imprisonment or execution.

Hitler's senior commanders had advised that the bulk of
the German attack should be concentrated on Moscow. Two smaller armies would
target Leningrad and Stalingrad and engage the enemy. These two armies would
then be helped by the troops in the main bulk once Moscow had surrendered. They
felt that once the heart of the nation had been cut out, the rest of the country
would fall.

Hitler would not have this. He did not believe that the
Russian army was a match for the Wehrmacht and decided on three equal forces
attacking Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad. As always, he got his way.

The Russian army collapsed under this onslaught and the
attack was initially incredibly successful. Moscow was nearly reached, Leningrad was
surrounded and the oil fields in the south were swiftly approached. But it had
one main failing and that was created by Hitler himself.

As the Russians pulled back (retreated) they destroyed
anything that might be of use to the German army as it advanced - bridges,
railways, buildings etc. and poisoned water supplies. This policy was known as
"scorched earth" and it was not expected by
the Germans and severely hindered their armies. The supply lines of the German
army stretched from Germany through Poland and into Russia itself - a huge
distance to defend and control. These supply lines were attacked by guerrillas called
partisans who did a considerable amount of damage to the German army and caused
major shortages.

The winter of 1941-42
was one
of the worst in recorded history. Daily temperatures fell to 40 degrees below
zero. German soldiers had not been issued with warm winter clothing as Hitler believed
that the invasion would be over by the winter. Soldiers froze to death in their
sleep, diesel froze in fuel tanks and food was in very short supply. Russian
soldiers had been issued with winter clothing and did not suffer as badly as
their German enemies.

The defeat of an entire German army at Stalingrad was a
disaster for the Germans and some historians consider this battle the turning
point of World War Two because the German army could now only go in one direction and
that was back to Germany.

However, while the army was fighting the Russian army,
soldiers from the SS Einsatzgruppen murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians. This was
all part of Hitlerís plan to get rid of 'sub-humans' from Europe. It is thought
that as many as 20 million Russians died during the war. The slaughter was so great that Himmler believed that the policy of shooting
civilians might disturbed those doing the killing. A direct result of this was
the order to find a quicker way of murdering the people of Russia and the idea
of death factories developed from this which lead to the Holocaust.

However, from a military point of view, the defeat of the
Germans by the Russians was vital to the Allies overall victory in Europe. Over
two-thirds of the German army was in the Russian war and its defeat meant that
the Allies in the west (GB, France and USA) had more chance of success against a
smaller force. Winston Churchill stated that it was the Russians who "tore
the heart out of the German army."

What was the war like for the people in Russia and for the
German soldiers?

From a German soldier who fought in Russia :

"Do you know how we behaved to the civilians? We
behaved like devils out of Hell. We left those poor villagers to starve to
death, thousands and thousands of them. How can you win a war in this way?

We shoot villagers on the slightest excuse. Just stick
them up against a wall. We order the whole village out to watch. Itís a
vicious circle. We hate them and they hate us, and on and on it goes, everyone
getting more inhuman.

The civilians were all ready to look on us as saviours.
They had had years of oppression from the communists. What did we do? Turn into
slaves under Hitler.

If the Russians should ever pay back one half of what we
have done, you wonít smile or sing again.

We were quartered (living) in a house outside the
town. Our dwelling for the night was a wooden house occupied by a Russian family
of five children and an old grandmother. We were bitten by fleas all night. We
opened our tins and made coffee, sharing what we had with the children and the
old woman.

The man of the house was a soldier and the mother had been
taken away to dig trenches. The children all had protubing bellies of long-term
malnutrition. The reality is that after 22 years of Communist rule, a salted
fish is the height of luxury. How this country depresses me."

From a soldier who fought in southern Russia :

"I watched my mother and father die. I knew perfectly
well that they were starving. But I wanted their bread more than I wanted them
to stay alive. And they knew that. Thatís what I remember about the blockade
(of Leningrad): that feeling that you wanted your parents to die because you
wanted their bread."